Suggested Reading List for Mt. Elbrus Expedition
Traveling through 21st century Russia from St. Petersburg through Moscow and on to the alpine resort region of Elbrus is perhaps the most compact, varied and exciting trip we offer. Background reading on where you will go, (or where you have been after you return home), might become an obsession!
Some of these books are available in Kindle versions. Electronic readers can be ideal way to carry travel books as they save weight and space.
St. Petersburg: Russia's Window to the Future, The First Three Centuries
BAI Comment: 600 page hardcover might be more that you can manage for reading on the airplane to Russia, but anyone who has walked the streets of St. Petersburg will forever crave information about how it happened, what are the stories behind the architecture and life in this great northern city? From Peter the Great to Catherine II, Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Nicholas and Alexandria, Rasputin and Lenin, it is all in this book, great bedside reading before and after your visit to Russia.
Lonely Planet St. Petersburg
The Rough Guide to St. Petersburg
BAI Comment: The best St Petersburg city guide by far.
Sunlight at Midnight: St. Petersburg and the Rise of Modern Russia
Lonely Planet Russia, Ukraine & Belarus
Lonely Planet Moscow City Guide
BAI Comment: For Moscow we like the Lonely Planet Guide better.
Russia & Belarus (Lonely Planet Travel Guides)
BAI Comment: This 2006 edition had excellent historical back ground and regional articles on all parts for Russia, including Karbino Balkaria, where Elbrus is located. There is a new 2009 edition of the Lonely Planet Russia guide that we have not yet seen.
Nicholas and Alexandra
Mt Elbrus Region, Guide and Map
Mt Elbrus The Upper Baksan Valley Map for Mountaineers